The NHS has been a beacon of national pride since it was founded in 1948, however, recently it has been failing.
During Covid 19 people across the UK clapped for the NHS every weekend and in the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony actors dressed as nurses, danced in recognition of them.
Yet, for many years the NHS has been plagued by a vast array of problems which some argue has led to it becoming borderline dysfunctional.
As per the NHS Constitution and operational standards, the NHS pledges that 95% of patients admitted to A and E should receive treatment within 4 hours.
However, in Q3 of 23/24 the percentage of patients who visited type 1 Accident and Emergency centres and were treated within 4 hours was only 57.7%, declining from 93.3% in Q3 of 2013/14 suggesting that the NHS is currently unable to reach its own standards of care.
Compared to other European counties it also falls behind.
The UK (as of March 2024) has 2.4 hospital beds per 1000 people compared to other nations like Germany with 7.8 and France with 5.7 putting them considerably below the EU average of 5 (https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/pressures/nhs-hospital-beds-data-analysis).
These statistics suggest that the NHS is not meeting standards and is underperforming compared to other countries, but why?
Covid 19 has been a key contributor to the NHS problems, pre-covid in December 2019 the waiting list for non-urgent care totalled to 4.5 million. However, during covid this number rose and continued to rise until it reached a peak of nearly 7.8 million people in September 2023. (https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/data-and-charts/waiting-times-non-urgent-treatment)
Covid put a massive strain on the NHS as doctors were off sick, hospital beds were filled with people with Covid and time was taken up for extra safety precautions which overall greatly decreased the efficiency and operating capacity of the NHS.
The NHS has also suffered due to the fact it is used as a political bargaining tool to gain votes, when a new government comes into power, they often scrap changes or planned budget increases, often stopping the NHS from improving.
When Labour came into power they scrapped planned caps on social care costs and funding increases which puts pressure on the NHS as some patients cannot be discharged from hospitals as social care for them at home is not available.
The NHS is reaching a breaking point where it is unable to do the thing it was formed for, care for the nation’s people.
